I recently had to do a video for school and when it was time to review it, I turned to my husband and asked, "Do I really sound like that?" He assured me I do. I grew up in Queens, NY and there's no hiding it. When I was discussing this with my daughter, she said, "Don't try to hide it - in fact, you should do a Podcast, people love that accent!"
Whether that is true or not, my daughter reminded me of something I already knew - that we should embrace our differences, make them ours, and don't apologize for them. This was never better illustrated than the time I was in a small, intimate presentation with the incredible Steven Covey who wrote SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. Covey was talking about time efficiencies and he pointed to a guy who had an admirable head of hair and said, "I get 15 minutes more productivity than you every morning." He then smiled and ran his hand over his very bald head. Steven Covey was indeed bald, but he also embraced it and used it to his advantage.
Just finishing my degree in children's writing, I can tell you than an overwhelming theme in this genre is speaking to children who feel different. And, truthfully, that's nearly every one of us. We all have something that make us feel different, - in some cases things that perhaps make us feel like we don't "fit in". Yet, many times when we embrace these differences, when we take the time to understand them, we find that they are the very thing that makes us an extraordinary human being.
Take your differences, embrace them, and use them - you'll be glad you did -
"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." - Coco Chanel
"If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be." - Maya Angelou
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter, don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
And of course, perhaps the most famous one of all - "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost